Living Costs and Food Survey, 2006-2017: Secure Access

<i>Background</i><br>
A household food consumption and expenditure survey has been conducted each year in Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) since 1940. At that time the National Food Survey (NFS) covered a sample drawn solely from urban working-class households, but this was extended to a fully demographically representative sample in 1950. From 1957 onwards the Family Expenditure Survey (FES) provided information on all household expenditure patterns including food expenditure, with the NFS providing more detailed information on food consumption and expenditure. The NFS was extended to cover Northern Ireland from 1996 onwards. In April 2001 these surveys were combined to form the Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS), which completely replaced both series. From January 2008, the EFS became known as the Living Costs and Food (LCF) module of the Integrated Household Survey (IHS). As a consequence of this change, the EFS questionnaire was altered to accommodate the insertion of a core set of questions, common to all of the separate modules which together comprise the IHS. Some of these core questions are simply questions which were previously asked in the same or a similar format on all of the IHS component surveys (including the EFS). For further information on the LCF questionnaire, see Volume A of the LCF 2008 User Guide, held with SN 6385. Further information about the LCF/EFS, including links to published reports based on the survey, may be found on the ONS <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/methodologies/livingcostsandfoodsurvey" title="Living Costs and Food Survey" target="_blank">Living Costs and Food Survey</a> webpage. Further information on the NFS and Living Costs and Food Module of the IHS can be found by searching for 'Family Food' on the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/" title="GOV.UK" target="_blank">GOV.UK</a> website.<br>
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<i>Purpose of the LCF (formerly EFS)</i><br>
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has overall project management and financial responsibility for the LCF/EFS, while the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) sponsors the food data. As with the FES and NFS, the LCF continues to be primarily used to provide information for the <i>Retail Prices Index</i>, <i>National Accounts</i> estimates of household expenditure, analysis of the effect of taxes and benefits, and trends in nutrition. The results are multi-purpose, however, providing an invaluable supply of economic and social data. The merger of the two surveys also brings benefits for users, as a single survey on food expenditure removes the difficulties of reconciling data from two sources.<br>
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<i>Design and methodology</i><br>
The design of the LCF/EFS is based on the FES, although the use of new processing software by the data creators has resulted in a dataset which differs from the previous FES structure. The most significant change in terms of reporting expenditure, however, is the introduction of the <i>European Standard Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose</i> (COICOP), in place of the codes used in the FES and NFS, which were unique to the two surveys. An additional level of hierarchy has been developed for the EFS to improve the mapping to the previous FES and NFS codes. The LCF/EFS was conducted on a financial year basis from 2001, but was moved from a financial to a calendar year basis from January 2006 in anticipation of the introduction of the IHS. Therefore, whilst SNs 4697, 5003, 5210, 5375 and 5688 cover 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 respectively, SN 5986 covers January-December 2006, and subsequent studies cover January-December of the survey year. The documentation for SN 5986 provides further details of the change in methodology.<br>
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<i>Northern Ireland sample</i><br>
Users of the LCF/EFS should note that, due to funding constraints, from January 2010 the Northern Ireland (NI) sample used for the LCF was reduced to a sample proportionate to the NI population relative to the UK.<br>
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<i>Variables available in the Secure Access version</i><br>
The Secure Access version includes geographical variables with detail below government office region up to the postcode level, and urban/rural area indicators, as well as other sensitive variables. Also included are the raw diary information files and the family expenditure codes files.<br>
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In response to user demand, the Living Costs and Food Survey moved from a calendar to financial year survey from 2015. Therefore, the main survey data files cover April 2015 - March 2016. To cover the transition, data are available for Quarter 1, 2015 (January - March), but are in separate files, all clearly marked as Quarter 1. See documentation for further details of the change.<br>
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<i>Latest edition information</i><br>
For the twelfth edition (July 2019), the person information (rawper) data files for 2011-2014 have been updated due to issues identified with the self-employment variables.<br>

<i>背景</i><br>自1940年起，英国（不含北爱尔兰）每年都会开展一次家庭食品消费与支出调查。1940年时，全国食品调查（National Food Survey, NFS）的样本仅取自城市工薪阶层家庭，但在1950年该调查扩展为具有完整人口统计学代表性的样本。1957年起，家庭支出调查（Family Expenditure Survey, FES）开始提供涵盖食品支出在内的全家庭支出模式信息，而NFS则提供更为细致的食品消费与支出数据。1996年起，NFS的覆盖范围扩展至北爱尔兰。2001年4月，两项调查合并为支出与食品调查（Expenditure and Food Survey, EFS），完全取代了原有的两个调查系列。2008年1月起，EFS更名为综合家庭调查（Integrated Household Survey, IHS）中的生活成本与食品模块（Living Costs and Food, LCF）。此次调整后，EFS问卷进行了修订，以纳入一套核心问题集，该问题集为构成IHS的所有独立模块所通用。其中部分核心问题仅是此前在IHS各组成调查（含EFS）中以相同或类似格式提出的问题。如需了解LCF问卷的更多信息，请参阅与SN 6385一同归档的《LCF 2008用户指南》卷A。如需获取LCF/EFS的更多信息（包括基于该调查发布的报告链接），可访问英国国家统计局（Office for National Statistics, ONS）的<a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/methodologies/livingcostsandfoodsurvey" title="Living Costs and Food Survey" target="_blank">生活成本与食品调查</a>网页。如需了解NFS以及IHS中的生活成本与食品模块的更多信息，可在<a href="https://www.gov.uk/" title="GOV.UK" target="_blank">GOV.UK</a>网站上搜索“Family Food”。<br><br><i>LCF（原EFS）的调研目的</i><br>英国国家统计局（ONS）负责LCF/EFS的整体项目管理与财务统筹，而环境、食品与农村事务部（DEFRA）则为食品数据部分提供资助。与此前的FES和NFS一致，LCF的核心用途仍是为零售价格指数、家庭支出的国民核算估算、税收与福利影响分析以及营养趋势研究提供数据支持。不过，该调查的用途并非局限于此，其结果可提供极具价值的经济与社会数据资源。两项调查的合并也为使用者带来了便利：单一的食品支出调查消除了整合两份不同来源数据的难题。<br><br><i>设计与方法学</i><br>LCF/EFS的设计基于FES，但由于数据制作者采用了新的处理软件，其数据集结构与此前的FES有所不同。不过，在支出报告方面最显著的变化是引入了按用途划分的个人消费欧洲标准分类（COICOP），取代了此前FES和NFS中各自独有的编码体系。此外，EFS还开发了额外的层级结构，以优化与此前FES和NFS编码的映射关系。LCF/EFS自2001年起采用财年开展调查，但为配合IHS的推出，自2006年1月起从财年调整为自然年调查。因此，SN 4697、5003、5210、5375和5688分别覆盖2001-2002、2002-2003、2004-2005及2005-2006财年，而SN 5986覆盖2006年1月至12月，后续的调查均覆盖调查年份的1月至12月。SN 5986的文档中提供了此次方法学变更的更多细节。<br><br><i>北爱尔兰样本</i><br>LCF/EFS的使用者需注意：由于资金限制，自2010年1月起，LCF所使用的北爱尔兰（NI）样本规模缩减至与北爱尔兰人口占英国总人口比例相符的水平。<br><br><i>安全访问版本可用变量</i><br>安全访问版本包含政府办公区域层级以下至邮政编码级别的地理变量、城乡区域标识，以及其他敏感变量。此外还包含原始日记信息文件与家庭支出编码文件。<br><br>为响应使用者需求，生活成本与食品调查自2015年起从自然年调查调整为财年调查。因此，主要的调查数据文件覆盖2015年4月至2016年3月。为应对此次过渡，2015年第一季度（1月至3月）的数据仍可获取，但存储于单独的文件中，且均明确标注为“第一季度”。如需了解此次变更的更多细节，请参阅相关文档。<br><br><i>最新版本信息</i><br>在2019年7月发布的第十二版中，由于发现个体经营变量存在问题，2011-2014年的个人信息（rawper）数据文件已进行更新。